Crow in the Stewartia
Journal Entry: June 27, 7:00 a.m. Jet black crow in the Stewartia tree, and other morning birds singing. The Olympic range makes a ragged, still-snowy horizon to the west. My surroundings are...
Cheap Motel on a Muggy Night
Friday, June 24 Just after midnight last night I checked into a cheap motel along the highway in Atlanta. I had been traveling and in airports for close to 24 hours and I was tired. The muggy,...
Every Step
What a way to begin and end a journey… Embedded in the platform at the Cadorna station, leading in and out of Milano, is a slab of stone engraved with this phrase: "Every step I have taken in my...
Stop?
As a cyclist, I must be ALWAYS vigilant! This particular stop sign on the way to the bikes-only path, both amuses and frightens me. Stop? What stop? And this ain't no "California Rolling Stop!" This...
A Little Something Sweet
I just had to. I've been here in Italy for almost 2 months and my apartment here in Milano is just 3 doors away from the best pastry shop in the city, Pasticceria Spezia Milano. I hadn't been in yet...
Venice for the Day
A couple of days ago I went to Venice for the day just because I could. In a few days it'll no longer be so simple to do. My fourth or fifth time there, this visit was entirely different. I wasn't...
Dirty Corner
Visitors to the show were required to sign a release form. They might become quite disturbed (read: freak out!) when walking through the pitch-black tunnel titled "Dirty Corner". Milan is hosting...
A Ticket to Ride
"I think I'll go to Venice for the day…" It's so outlandish to say that, and it's not often that I CAN just go to Venice for the day, that I'm going to! I bought train tickets for tomorrow and will...
Octopus Lesson
Such dear, dear people. I feel so welcomed by Agnese, Ninni, their son Erik and Ninni's sister Bea. They greeted me so warmly and then said goodbye with hints of visiting Seattle this year! It was...
Sauerkraut in Italy
The next time you eat sausage, thick pork chop, sauerkraut, polenta, hot mustard and horseradish, think northeastern Italy. Delicious and nothing like what Americans think of as "Italian Food"....
Way Up North
It began with a Campari bottle. A classic design they've used for decades. Hmm. Curious. I googled it and found that the bottle was designed by Italian artist and designer, Fortunato Depero, in...
A Finger in the Lake
I bought some train tickets! Yesterday I traveled from Milano to Sirmione, an historic town at the end of a finger-of-a-peninsula that juts into the south end of Lago Di Garda - Lake Garda. I...